Are You Sure?
I make a lot of assumptions in my day-to-day life, as well as in my job as an IT consultant. To mitigate the inherent arrogance of making assumptions, I have to remember to ask myself…
I’m speaking tomorrow
The local SQL PASS chapter in Calgary is hosting yours truly as the speaker for this month. I only have an hour, which I will easily go over, to talk about how I make SQL…
Speaking at Calgary SQL PASS User Group on 19 August 2015
As the title says, I’ll be speaking at the Calgary SQL PASS User Group on 19 August 2015. My topic is SQL Server Performance Tuning Starter Kit, where I will tell you as much as…
How I prepared for my first ever SQLSaturday session
I presented for fifty minutes on 27 June 2015, for my first ever SQLSaturday talk. The amount of time I put into that presentation is easily 200 hours, not counting my experience as a college…
Announcing Azure Blob Storage Sync and Restore
Yesterday at SQLSaturday #407 in Vancouver, I announced availability of a free tool to synchronise and restore your SQL Server backups using Azure Blob Storage. It can work alongside your existing backup process, and leverages…
Pre-Announcement Announcement
On Saturday, 27 June 2015, I will be presenting at SQLSaturday #407 in Vancouver BC. The session is titled “Restoring a SQL Server Database from Azure Blob Storage”. I will be releasing some new content…
SQLSaturday #407 in Vancouver
I have been selected to speak at SQLSaturday #407 in Vancouver, on 27 June 2015. My topic is about restoring SQL Server backups from Azure Blob Storage, and how to make this process easier (and…
Database Corruption Challenge
Steve Stedman has been running a contest over on his site, the Database Corruption Challenge, which I discovered last week quite by chance through Twitter. Not to brag, but I’ve been the fastest to solve…
Loyalty can be bought
This piece was originally written some years ago, and never published. It is a report and analysis of the largest project I had worked on as a developer / DBA up to that point in my career. I have published it here for any of you who are interested.
Total Recall
This is the final entry in my #SQLNewBlogger challenge. You can read the previous entries here: Part 1: The Intersection of Art and Science Part 2: The Art of Improvisation Part 3: What Motivates You?…
What motivates you?
In this, the third part of my series on the intersection of art and science, I hit that crossroad. I can cross over into the creative, art side, where this post has been written, or…
The Art of Improvisation
This is the second post in my four part series for the #SQLNewBlogger Challenge. You can read the first part here. On Saturday, 28 March 2015, I moved three servers and various networking equipment from…
The Intersection of Art and Science
This is the first post in a series of four, where Ed Leighton-Dick, via Brent Ozar, is proposing that we SQL Server folks participate in the #SQLNewBlogger Challenge. I write a fair number of words…
Do it now: Date and Number tables
Your production environment needs Date and Number tables, to help you Get Stuff Done in sets instead of RBAR*. Doug Lane has a video on Why You Simply Must Have a Date Table. I really…
Assumption Sandwich
Today we went live with a product we’ve been working on for A Long Time, in which a team of five has put in A Lot Of Work. During the walk-through with the customer, loading…